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If you work at one of the approximately 12,000 companies that run SAP applications on Windows servers, SAP and Microsoft's joint release of a portal development kit (PDK) for Visual Studio .Net 2003 presents a new possibility for agile application integration — assuming the SAP Enterprise Portal is an interface you want to invest in.

By Rajeev Kasturi

If you work at one of the approximately 12,000 companies that run SAP applications on Windows servers, SAP and Microsoft's joint release of a portal development kit (PDK) for Visual Studio .Net 2003 presents a new possibility for agile application integration-assuming the SAP Enterprise Portal is an interface you want to invest in. How much you'd need to invest is a mystery, as always, because SAP never publicly releases its pricing guidelines. Plus, you must keep your eyes open for potential compatability problems.

SAP Enterprise Portal is a product component in the SAP NetWeaver architecture and provides features such as integrated access to various SAP and non-SAP applications through a single portal, role-based user screens (which SAP calls iViews), single sign-on, drag and relate (for transactions and documents) and, most significantly, the ability to access supplier and customer applications. While you could argue that features such as single sign-on and customized user screens are merely nice to have, you can increase your company's efficiency and productivity by using a portal to integrate self-service applications and form dedicated communities with suppliers and customers in your supply chain.

The PDK (free to download now) is a presentation-layer tool that gives ASP.Net programmers access to SAP enterprise applications through the SAP Enterprise Portal. Developing a portal application with this PDK in Visual Studio .Net 2003 boils down to a set of configuration steps and writing a few lines of code in C# and Visual Basic .Net.

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As a simple example, an application for retrieving bank customer statements from the SAP back-end applications and presenting them in the portal iView would entail configuring certain environmental variables such as proxy, choosing the templates and user-interface elements (including buttons, grids and so forth), selecting the appropriate SAP Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPIs) and writing approximately 200 lines of code in C# and VB.Net that invoke APIs and handle user events and exceptions. Just this exercise would enable the .Net environment to operate the millions of lines of code in SAP applications and make available to the business user a uniform, ergonomic browser interface. ASP.Net developers should note that while this PDK reduces the complexity of interoperability, it requires them to be SAP savvy and understand SAP APIs, NetWeaver Java libraries (classes) and SAP communication protocols such as RFC.

The developer community is generally excited about the possibilities even while fighting through the inevitable bugs found in any version 1 release.

But here's a cautionary note about compatibility for those planning to migrate to Indigo, Microsoft's next-generation .Net architecture and programming system for service-oriented application integration. The PDK's Interoperability Framework, which allows calls between the Java (Enterprise Portal) and .Net (.Net Runtime Engine) stacks, uses a technology called .Net Remoting. Guess what: With Indigo looming, Microsoft discourages use of .Net Remoting.

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A Service firm recently approached my company and they require us to support their SAP Business One system that runs on MS SQL and has an external billing system that runs on Oracle database. What do you think? It'd have been great if SAP Business One supports Oracle database. Better integration I believe!

Clearly, SAP Business One can only be deployed on three database systems: Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2 and Sybase. I have managed large Oracle database systems, so I know from experience that Oracle is extremely robust. Therefore, I would not know why SAP does not consider Oracle as one of the database systems for SAP Business One, even though Oracle and SAP have been working together since SAP R/3 was first developed in the late 1980s.

From the foregoing, I have made some assertions why SAP Business One on Oracle is still a mirage. I may be wrong. I stand to be corrected.

1. Cost: An average individual tends to see Oracle as an expensive database system. And since SAP Business One is targeted towards small and medium scale businesses, it might increase the total cost of ownership of SAP Business One, if companies get to use Oracle as the database system upon which their system sits. Hence, the reason to partner with less expensive database system vendors because small and medium scale companies are not buoyant enough to afford such cost. However, Oracle too supports small and medium scale businesses with one solution or the other that uses Oracle database.

2. Database Management: With due respect, it's more technically challenging to manage an Oracle database system when compared to MS SQL, IBM DB2 and Sybase. Small and medium scale businesses might not be able to afford the technical experts needed to manage such database - Oracle. The cost of hiring technical personnel to manage an SAP Business One on Oracle database system can also increase the total cost of ownership somehow and small and medium size companies are not cut out for this.

3. Database Size: Experience has shown that in choosing the database system for SAP Business One, the maximum expected database size is a critical consideration factor. Oracle no doubt, is designed to supports large databases. As a matter of fact, the current release of Oracle, Oracle 10g supports database size of up to 8 exabytes - about 8 million terabytes. However, SAP Business One is meant for small and medium companies. May be it is assumed that its (SAP Business One system) database size cannot be really large as to require an Oracle database.

4. Corporate Feud: The first thing that comes to mind when you mention Oracle is database management system and SAP, enterprise resource planning system. However, over time, Oracle has gone into ERP system development. This singular action has created serious competition in the market place and the quest for market dominance has paved way for open conflict between the two software giants. Hence, can it be said that it's this corporate tussle that is responsible for SAP not partnering with Oracle (or vice versa) as it relates to SAP Business One?
May be yes. However, on a closer look, one can say No. This is because; Microsoft who even poses more threat to SAP, especially in the SMB market space has a database system (MS SQL) that is supported by SAP Business One.

5. Corporation Readiness: Another reason that comes to my mind is probably the readiness of either (or both) company at the time of rolling out SAP Business One. May be Oracle or SAP has not technically finished work on the supporting features that will make SAP Business One on Oracle work. However, SAP Business One has been around for a number of years now. One would have expected work to be have been finalized. Are they still working on it? Am just thinking?!

I believe that SAP Business One on Oracle will provide more functionalities and flexibility for SAP Business One users. Anyone with information on why Oracle is not a supported database system for SAP Business One should drop me some lines or are you thinking too?

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